'Feeding homophobia to kids': Apurva Asrani, Onir slam top icecream brand; demand apology

Filmmaker Apurva Asrani on Saturday took to his Twitter handle to share a 'problematic' cartoon by a popular ice-cream brand. 'Feeding homophobia to kids,' Asrani wrote as he slammed the brand for spreading a message of 'disgust and disrespect'.

Filmmaker Onir came out in support of Apurva and demanded an apology from the brand. The cartoon shows two pictures — one where a guy is shown to be mesmerised by a person (looks like a girl from behind) but in the second picture when he goes closer it turns to be a man and the boy is shown to be 'shocked or disgusted'. Bollywood actor Gulshan Devaiah also wrote, "Another problem: So it’s kinda creepy for the man to just look at long hair and an effeminate demeanour and profess his love. That’s inappropriate behaviour!!!!" [sic]

To this, Asrani replied, "Oh yeah, I just understood your tweet. This stalking a stranger is a problem too. That too based on basic physical attributes. That's another whole discussion" [sic]

When a fan told Asrani that it was "just a joke", the director hit back saying, "Put things in perspective before you call this a harmless joke. The LGBTQ is a community that has been persecuted, humiliated & criminalised for 100s of years. Our people are dying lonely, our kids are committing suicide. We need to fix the homophobia before we make such jokes." [sic]

Cartoon on an ice cream; Guy fancies girl. She turns out to be a guy. He is appalled. Been saying this since #Dostana, it's not the comedy that's problematic, it's the message of disgust & disrespect. Shame on #KwalityWalls for feeding #homophobia to kids. #KwalityWallsHomophobia pic.twitter.com/rAOJqFA3Ag

— Apurva (@Apurvasrani) June 20, 2020

Still no apology from @Unilever or @KwalitywallsIn . Exposes where you stand in terms of Inclusion, Diversity and celebrating #PRIDE2020 . #Shame https://t.co/WXnBq1qjPn

— Onir (@IamOnir) June 21, 2020

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Netizen Reactions

Ya i also felt movies like dostana normalise making fun of a community, that’s dangerous. Coz where do we draw a line - at what point of bullying just coz it’s funny? Brands like @KwalitywallsIn should be more conscious. There is a difference in being funny & making fun of.

— ainara kaur (@AinaraKaur) June 20, 2020

Societal Attitudes (towards homosexuality or otherwise) needs to be a subject in schools as mandatory as History or Science, so that our kids, when they graduate to, or freelance for these ad agencies, are sensitized enough to differentiate between the funny and the offensive.

— Sayed Q Husain (@sayedqhusain) June 21, 2020

Thank you for sharing it here @Apurvasrani 😌 I really appreciate your support and love !!!

— Kalyanee Mulay (@Kalyanmayee) June 20, 2020

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